At Spa, but not relaxing

While spas are generally quiet and pleasant places to bide the time, Spa-Franchorchamps is very much the opposite. Kevin talks himself through the weekend which brought him P4 and P5.

How satisfied you are with the outcome?
Finishing positions were not the best ones but then you gathered some useful
points.

It was OK. There is no big difference if you
are 3rd and 6th or 4th and 5th or 7th and 2nd, points are still the same.
Second race could have been a little bit better but the first one was more or
less OK. Race one was mega short, something like six racing laps only, but I
still overtook two guys and two others crashed in front of me. First I managed
to overtake Nick Yelloly on lap 2 or 3. Then I caught Alexander Sims who battled
with Facu Regalia in front of him. Regalia wasn’t particularly quick, Sims
tried to overtake him but went wide and I was able to leave him behind.

Then we made some adjustments for race two but
certain things worked in the opposite direction we had hoped they will. But at
least we tried and gathered a knowledge.

Spa with its long straights is a very
different compared to previous tracks in this year GP3 calendar. Did it mean
more overtaking opportunities?

We had some overtaking indeed, but it was not
that different overall. Just look how Daniil Kvyat won race one – starting from
pole and leading all the way to the finish despite having Conor Daly in his
slipstream and simply driving away from third-placed drivers before the safety
car intervened. He was able to pull away a second per lap. In race two he was in
front of me in the beginning but when I managed to overtake him on lap three or
four he was not even able to keep my pace.

And what about tire degradation?

It seems to be the same old story – if you are
further back your tires wear out more. But as I mentioned, at least overtaking
was possible this time. And Monza where we will have the next round has even longer
straights and that should give us even more overtaking opportunities.

In Formula 1 they must go for a compromise
at Spa and sacrifice some straightline speed to downforce or vice versa. Do you
have the same possibilities when setting up the car?

Yes we have, to some extent. Our set-up window
is not massively large but we can do one or two things.

During the qualification you were fastest of
all in sector 1 but not that good further down the track. Was it because of the
set-up or it just happened?

I would say it simply happened. I caught a
good slipstream in the beginning of the lap and my time went purple in sector
1. Then I caught my team-mate Aaro Vainio’s slipstream in sector 2 but tires
were finished already and it didn’t change anything. Generally in Spa, if you
have less wing and less drag you will be fast in sectors 1 and 3, if you have
more wing and more downforce, you will gain in sector 2. Majority of drivers
had quite similar setup with almost maximum downforce.

In qualification you were near the top on two
first tire sets but then lost a couple of places with the final one. What
happened?

I managed to put together almost an ideal lap
with the second set and simply couldn’t improve much enough with the third one.
Many other drivers had only two fresh sets remaining for qualification as they
had used their first ones during practice on Friday. So maybe it was a little
bit skewed picture in the beginning when many people were on old tires and we
were on new ones.

What are you expecting from Monza?

We have to do something to get our starts
right with this ultra-long first gear. At the moment the most important thing
is to take off properly. At Spa we had problems during both starts. According
to the regulations everybody has the same ratios but obviously people who put
together gearboxes have got it wrong. We have so long gearing we even don’t use
6th gear on the straights. First turn and final chicane were both first-gear
corners in Spa. Eventually first gear is so long it gives you an impression you
are trying to take off in second. It was no wonder five or six
drivers stalled during the first start. I think I had to depress clutch about
four times just to get going. I really can’t tell you how ART drivers had so
smooth getaways. But their great starts were the reason they took so many
points while we all had the same issues in out team.